Artist-in-residence

The NTU CCA Singapore Residencies programme is an integral part of the NTU CCA Singapore’s mission as a research centre and hosts artists, curators, critics and scholars from Singapore and abroad. The studio-based Residencies programme is dedicated to facilitating the production of knowledge and research for and by established and emerging artists. It serves as a forum for cultural and artistic exchange in Southeast Asia, augmented with public events Residencies: Insights / Studio Sessions / OPEN series, ranging from open studio sessions, lectures, live performances, to special projects in The Lab, NTU CCA Singapore’s space for curatorial experimentation. The application for residency at NTU CCA Singapore is via nomination, please email NTUCCAresidencies@ntu.edu.sg for more information.

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Tyler Coburn

Residency period

19 June – 31 July 2017

About

Tyler Coburn (b. 1983, United States) is an artist and writer based in New York. Shifting from performance and installation to writing and sound, his work critically addresses issues of labour and smart urbanism, trends in computing, the material infrastructures of the virtual world and the ways digital interfaces affect writing and notions of the self.

He holds an M.F.A. Studio Art from University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and a B.A. Literature from Yale University, New Haven, United States. In 2013-2014 he was a fellow at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program

Coburn has exhibited widely, both within the United States and internationally. His work has been presented in group exhibitions at ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany (2017); 2016 Gwangju Biennale, South Korea; Kunstverein Hamburg, Germany (2016); de Cordova Sculpture Park, Lincoln, United States (2015); Shanghai Biennale, China (2014); Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, United Kingdom (2012), just to mention a few. His writing has appeared in publications such asFrieze, e-flux, Mousse and Rhizome. Most recently, he participated in Container Artist Residency 01, a residency program that takes place onboard commercial cargo ships.

Focus

Investigating Singapore’s role within the growing global phenomenon of “green cities”, Coburn will pursue research into Singapore’s development from “Garden City” to “City in a Garden”. He aims to delve into historical and emerging notions of green urbanism, framing the garden as a pedagogical, philosophical, and literary construct. Focusing on two specific case studies, he will place the multiple functions of Singapore Botanic Gardens in a wider historical prospective and explore the social and economic conditions which underlie the complex eco-tourist structure of Gardens by the Bay.

Public programmes

Ergonomic Futures is a multi-part project that asks questions about contemporary “fitness” through the lens of speculative evolution. Consisting of seats designed for future bodies that currently serve as museum furniture, a website (www.ergonomicfutures.com), and a lecture, the work comes out of Tyler Coburn’s interviews with paleoanthropologists, ergonomists, evolutionary biologists, and genetic engineers. To each he has asked: What are future scenarios for imagining new types of human bodies and how might this thought experiment reframe conversations about body normativity in the present day?

In the lecture, Coburn will discuss genetic engineering, the founder effect, postplanetary living, and other matters that contribute to the biological, philosophical, and legal definition of the “human.”

Ergonomic Futures is a multi-part project that asks questions about contemporary “fitness” through the lens of speculative evolution. Consisting of seats designed for future bodies that currently serve as museum furniture, a website (www.ergonomicfutures.com), and a lecture, the work comes out of Tyler Coburn’s interviews with paleoanthropologists, ergonomists, evolutionary biologists, and genetic engineers. To each he has asked: What are future scenarios for imagining new types of human bodies and how might this thought experiment reframe conversations about body normativity in the present day?

In the lecture, Coburn will discuss genetic engineering, the founder effect, postplanetary living, and other matters that contribute to the biological, philosophical, and legal definition of the “human.”